Saturday, December 15, 2012

If you didn't make it to the all-day Facebook party for GothicScapes and STRANGE SPIRITS yesterday...damn, did we have fun! So many party favors given away, so many fun times chatting about books and movies and TV and insomnia. It was fantastic to see my reading friends and make new ones.

If you did make it, thank you so much for being there. Some of you were even there all day, which blew my mind. You all are troupers!

Friday, December 14, 2012

It's party time over at Facebook! We're having a STRANGE SPIRITS launch party from 9am - 11pm Pacific time, so come on over for insane chatter and party favors galore! Nancy Holder, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, our hostess Lisa Kessler, and I will be popping in and out all day. Hopefully we'll see you soon!

Thursday, December 06, 2012

I’m taking
part in a big blog hop for The Next Big Thing, which highlights new releases
and works in progress. I was tagged by
the fabulous Melissa Cutler, who writes hot contemporary and action/adventure. Check her out for some good reads!

STRANGE SPIRITS, which is a collection of three paranormal holiday novellas, including
one from my Vampire Babylon world. The
book is actually out now!

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Nancy
Holder, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, and I wanted to put together some kick-ass paranormal
anthologies, and we felt that the shorter novella format would be a good way to
dip our toes back into the old worlds we’ve created as well as new ones.

What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal action/adventure.

Which actors would you choose to play your
characters in a movie rendition?

I’ve always
pictured Summer Glau as Dawn Madison.
Since Dawn is older now in these novellas, Summer’s still my gal.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your novella?

A mysterious entity stalks a monster hunter on
Dawn Madison’s team, and they’re about to learn that hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned!

Will your
book be self-published or represented by an agency?

This one is
digitally self-published.

How long did it take you to write the first
draft of your manuscript?

Since this
is a shorter novella with about 30,000 words, this took under a month.

After my Vampire Babylon
series ended in print form, a couple years passed. Then the digital revolution really started
happening, and since I really wanted to continue with the VB world, I jumped at
the chance to continue it in this format.

Also, if you are so moved to post a review of this or STRANGE SPIRITS, we would appreciate it very much! In fact, if you get my newsletter on Tuesday, there'll be instructions in there about how to get a thank you gift from me....

STRANGE SPIRITS, a collection of 3 stories by Nancy Holder, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, and yours truly just went live for sale!

Mistletoe, dreidels,
Father Christmas, and twinkly stars on the tops of trees. Don’t you love this
most wonderful time of the year?

But there’s also a darker side to the holiday season – and
renowned paranormal authors Chris Marie Green, Nancy Holder, and Linda
Thomas-Sundstrom, have put some scary merrymaking into stories about STRANGE
SPIRITS who might not believe in putting the “happy” in the holidays.

Into the Storm: a witch tries to keep Christmas in the middle of a
violent, time-travelling war.

In Bad Spirits: a mysterious entity stalks a monster hunter on
Dawn Madison’s team, and they’re about to learn that hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned!

Hot Holiday: The Dark Side has put a hit out on Santa Claus and
sent a Recruiter named Wanda to seal the deal.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

I've read Nancy's and Linda's stories already--Nancy's Gifted witches have a dark yet wonderful "Christmas Carol" type adventure, while a recruiter demon in Linda's novella comes up against a good guy who might just be tempted by a little Christmas bad. As for my story? Another Dawn Madison tale, this one featuring Dawn, Jonah, Frank, Breisi, and Costin. Hopefully, it'll move you during this holiday season. (Just so you know, I got a little choked up writing it...)

Monday, October 29, 2012

· 1) Covers--in addition to making sure you’ve got a
cover that pops, make sure it looks good in black and white postage stamp-size. Make sure the title is clear,
and make the author’s name BIG. Make sure
the message that’s relayed by the cover is “This is a real book.” What that means is that it is polished. Also, people have already used a browser to
find your book, so they have an idea of what it’s about, etc. The cover hopefully closes the deal.

· 2) Make the inside of your book polished, too. Some authors use three proofers to go over their
books! Some prefer to have backlist
titles typed in, rather than scanned, because scanning results in too many errors
that proofers might not catch. A good
typist doesn’t make nearly as many errors.

On raising your profile:

1) In general, it gets easier to raise your profile
if you have more than one book out there.

·2) Pay attention to the keywords you use, because
they can really draw people to your work.
Use settings, situations, character names...

· 3) Newsletter: Make it more interesting with
factoids and pictures. Gear it toward
your readers, using the word “you”; make it about them rather than just
yourself. Do giveaways or swag. In a word, engage* them!

· 4) If you use Goodreads, don’t go on there to
promote to death. Go on because you are
a true reader. J

· 1) Make the most out of the “back of the book”:
include your backlist as well as hyperlinks to them. Always put your site there.

· 2) If you don’t want to “go free” with your books,
consider pricing them down to $.99. This
puts the book into a different “world” than giving them away for free, because
it attracts a customer who’ll be willing to pay a little more.

·When your sales briefly spike because of the
value offer, make the most of it--maybe you could have an excerpt from an
upcoming book in the value book with a pre-buy link, or at the very least,
include your site/Twitter/FB/newsletter info.
But since we live in an instant world, the pre-buy link would be the best. Also, raise your price shortly after the
promo to take advantage of the spike.

· 3) It’s smart to have a digital release every 6-7
months, even if you just put out a short story to remind your readers that you’re
still out there.

On expanding your reach:

· 1) If you’re going to do a foreign edition of your
book, your cover needs to reflect the culture of the country.

· 2) Think about doing a manga version of your book
for Japan.Big sales.Lots of work, though.If you’re thinking of getting your book
translated, keep in mind that this works best if you have a large backlist and
good sales.

Second, this is so very exciting. Nancy, Linda, and I are so proud and happy about how this turned out, from the novellas themselves to the beautiful cover. As most of you know, I wanted to continue my Vampire Babylon series, and self-pubbing was the way to go. Besides, I love writing novellas just as much as I love reading them, and I have to say that I enjoyed Nancy's and Linda's stories as a pure fan!

I don't know about you guys, but I usually go on a Halloween binge around this time of year. I devour short stories in particular, plus scary movies. So I'm ecstatic to actually be a part of Halloween with this collection, which centers around Samhain/All Hallow's Eve. Here's the blurb so you can get a better sense of what the three stories are about:

Samhain. All
Hallow’s Eve. A night when zombie-like revenants can be raised by a
magic-using, ancient family to exact revenge on the hunter who wrecked their
underground kingdom... A time when a redheaded blackbelt pits herself against
warmongering witch clans... A holiday that allows the Underworld to open and
the creatures to pour out, their freedom governed by a gentleman's agreement
between the forces of Light and Dark.

Welcome to
UNDEAD FOR A DAY, a collection of three novellas from a trio of reader favorite
urban fantasy writers: Chris Marie Green, AKA Christine Cody (Vampire Babylon
and Bloodlands series), New York Times Bestseller
Nancy Holder (Wicked and Teen Wolf series), and Linda Thomas-Sundstrom (Vampire
Moons and Wolf Moons series).

“Raising
the Darkness” by Chris Marie Green (A Dawn Madison Vampire Babylon novella) reunites
you with former hunter Dawn Madison, who hasn’t been the same since she retired
from the life. She’s tired and drained from injuries sustained during the
team’s last stand against the dragon, but when the clock strikes twelve on
Samhain, everything changes. It seems that someone has sent
raised-from-the-dark creatures after her, and they’re out for blood—as well as
Dawn’s life.

In “Into the Fire” by Nancy Holder (A
Story of the Favored,) Bridget Flynn leaps into a bonfire and goes from Samhain
year wife at the first stroke of midnight to widow on the last. Caught in the
middle of a feud between rival magical Houses, Bridget raises a battle force of
her own. But can she survive in the midst of hot-tempered witches intent on
destroying each other?

“Trapped in Stone” by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
takes us to Notre Dame Cathedral in
Paris, where the forces of Good and Evil are playing a game of Chicken with one
man's soul, and the woman he loves is a major player in a challenge that has
continued for a century.

“Enchanting,
mysterious, powerfully written…Dawn Madison and herunderground entourage will
charm you with everything an urban fantasy should be. Be prepared for a
wonderfully wicked, kick-ass night of Samhain fun. Whether you are new to
the Vampire Babylon series or a loyal fan--you will love this story!”---Sheri
Whitefeather, kindle and national bestselling author.

I hope you join me on this new journey through Vampire Babylon-land! There'll be another GothicScapes anthology with another VB novella come December, but enjoy this first. ; )

Thursday, September 06, 2012

First, we just found out today that Nancy Holder, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, and I are going to be on a panel at Comikaze in Los Angeles. Saturday, the 15th (Yes, that's next week, LOL.), 12pm. Don't know the room yet, but I'm happy we're going!

Second, I'm flying so high because I kicked butt on some chapters today! I'm currently writing the new series I told you about before...Jensen Murphy: Ghost for Hire. I'm high on all the fun research I get to do and I'm high on Jen, because she's a ghost from the 80s. Yeah, she was murdered, but girls still want to have fun...in the afterlife. When they're not solving crimes.

Third, UNDEAD FOR A DAY, GothicScapes #1, is still coming together. The formatted text is going to the *real* formatting person, who will make sure it is suitable for posting/publishing. Whoo! Step by step, we're getting closer to that October release date.

Fourth, I've got that second St. Valentine, Texas, Special Edition (written as Crystal Green) coming out this month, and DADDY IN THE MAKING is hitting the shelves in only a couple of weeks!

Last, I'm still waiting for the most recent contest winner to claim her prize, so if any of you entered, could you please check your inboxes? Thanks!

Monday, August 27, 2012

You guys, I never knew it was such work to format. I mean, all this time with print pub, I've been just writing my books, making sure there are no egregious mistakes in them, and sending them off to New York where, POOF!, magic happens. I've never had to deal with spaces at the ends of paragraphs and junk like that. Something I learned during formatting camp (BESIDES *EVERYTHING*?): I need to start getting used to italicizing instead of underlining, as New York has us do with words and thoughts that need to be emphasized.

Let's not even talk about what to do with ellipses!

During lunch, Linda, Nancy, and I talked about price points and some promo. We decided that we're going to spring our beautiful UNDEAD FOR A DAY cover on the world in mid-September. And we talked about going to the Romantic Times convention since we'll be on two panels together. (I'll also be at the Harlequin Reader event and Club RT, so I hope you'll look me up if you're going in 2013!)

Within the next couple of days, Linda, who has been working her butt off with "the book work," will be putting the manuscript together, then sending it off to Formatting Guy, who lives in England. I'm just dying to see the final product. We even put together a "Coming Soon" page that's going to be at the end of the book, complete with teasers about what you can expect from our second GothicScapes release, STRANGE SPIRITS in December!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

So this week has been kind of a "clean up week." What I mean by that is that I sent information for the art work for a Fortunes of Texas Special Edition book (w/a Crystal Green) to my publisher. Then I polished the actual book itself, getting it ready to turn in. Today and tomorrow I'm polishing the second GothicScapes Vampire Babylon novella (w/a Chris Marie Green) so it'll be all shiny for my freelance editor and then its December release.

But Friday? Ah, Friday will be the day that Nancy Holder, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, and I will be having the ultimate clean up--a "format camp" for our first GothicScapes release in October!

See, one thing I didn't really get is that digital work must be formatted before it's actually formatted. What I mean is this--before the magical guy who will be posting our work formats the book for publishing platforms such as Kindle and Smashwords, etc., we have to make sure that we do things like have only one space between periods and the beginnings of new sentences. (Yes--I am old school and, out of habit, I still do two spaces. I have to train myself to stop it.) Also, you have to have certain quote marks throughout the manuscript and we have to streamline all chapter headings.

You know--maybe I should retitle this whole blog. Something like, "The Adventures of a Complete Doofus in Digital Self-Pubbling"! That's sure what I feel like. But I'm sure things will smooth out after this first release.

Oh--by the way... I'll be posting the cover for UNDEAD FOR A DAY, GothicScapes #1, soon! We lovelovelove it. I couldn't have asked for a better cover!

Friday, August 10, 2012

In “Raising the Dead”
by Chris Marie Green (A Dawn Madison Vampire Babylon novella), former hunter
Dawn Madison hasn’t been the same since she retired from the life. She’s tired and drained from injuries
sustained during the team’s last stand against the dragon, but when the clock
strikes twelve on Samhain, everything changes.
It seems that someone has sent raised-from-the-dark creatures after her,
and they’re out for blood—as well as Dawn’s life.

Undead! Revenant!

Big trouble for Dawn and the team.

Stay tuned for word on Nancy's story and Linda's story and more news (and maybe even the cover???)!Sale date: October

We're planning for our first release to come out in early October--in fact, we're shooting for an October 1 date, but since this is our first endeavor, we're not sure of the exact timing yet. (We'll be more on target as we go along. ) The second release is planned for early December, 2012, and the third in early April, 2013.

Now that I can freely discuss this, there's so much to talk about. We were working on trademarking our group name because we thought it'd be a good idea to have a brand to identify what we're doing. We had to come up with a connecting premise for each release after deciding when our schedules would allow us to write the stories. And we've had to do fun little things like deciding who's going to do what duties (accounting, book formatting, proofing, etc.).

At first, I thought of this as a "fun" project, but there's a whole lot more involved, LOL. But what excites me the most is experimenting with digital publishing...and being able to write Vampire Babylon again!

My novella in the first anthology will be a sort of reboot of the VB series. Dawn and the team are at different places in their lives now that they "captured" the dragon during DEEP IN THE WOODS, book 6. But the dragon is actually *inside* Dawn now, and this presents a problem or two, as you can imagine. To make matters worse, as an ex-vampire (Recall that she briefly became one in BREAK OF DAWN to help Costin.), she's got a "soul stain" in her--a dark mark that's full of dark feelings. If the dragon spirit inside Dawn gets to that soul stain, it'll feed him, making him stronger, so this is a constant danger for Dawn.

So that's the set up. And, believe me, there are a lot of stories to be told!

As I said, the first novella will come out in October, and it'll be in a GothicScapes collection called UNDEAD FOR A DAY. The action centers around Halloween/Samhain (Hence the October release, .) And, you guessed it, all three of our stories will use the theme of the undead/resurrection. I'll be talking more about my Vampire Babylon novella in the future, but let's just say that you'll see some familiar characters, like Kiko, Costin, Jonah, Natalia, and... Well, there'll be a familiar villain for those of you who read the second trilogy in London. And if you haven't read the short story I wrote for a collection called THOSE WHO FIGHT MONSTERS, you might want to catch up with that, too, since it'll give you an idea of Dawn's state of being since the close of DEEP IN THE WOODS....

Just a hint about Nancy Holder's and Linda Thomas-Sundstrom's novellas.... Nancy is writing about witches (and if you read her and Debbie Vigue's WICKED series, you'll know that she's a kick-ass witch writer!) and Linda's story centers around a gargoyle (I can't wait for you to read this, too!).

Man,you guys, there's just so much going on, and I haven't even touched on the December collection. I've already written that novella, as well, and it was pretty emotional. If you've read the whole VB series, you might feel the same way after you're done, too....

Monday, July 16, 2012

Sunday, which is the day everything winds down and San Diego sort of gets back to "normal," I mainly hung out with friends. One of them dressed in his 501st Stormtrooper outfit, so there were a lot of picture requests for him. He was a superstar.

My big priority was to see the SONS OF ANARCHY panel. The entire main cast was there, but you know my attention was pretty much on Charlie Hunnam (Jax). Again, can you blame me? Oh, and we also got to see the first few minutes of the coming season's episode one. Recap:

* Jax talking. Hot.

* The motorcycle club escorting one of their prospects as he drives a truck. Truck attack. Gun fire. Boom! Sons fend off the attackers.

* A blank screen with sex sounds happening. (It was explained by Kurt Sutter that Comic-Con made him black out the image of Gemma getting...erm..."serviced" from the back by Jimmy Smits. So it was Smits sex.)

* Tara in a bathtub smoking pot or whatever. I never care much about what Tara does. In fact, I like to pretend she doesn't exist.

The cast was funny and full of expletives, which makes things funnier. Big surprise of this panel: Girls love Charlie Hunnam and Theo Rossi (Juice). Kurt Sutter gave away swag based on trivia questions.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

As some of you know, I used to do a pretty thorough recap of my Comic-Con experiences in the past. That was back in the days before it took every ounce of energy I possess to make it through the crowds. Besides, *everyone* does recaps now, and it just seemed redundant to add my own 2 cents, especially since you have to race to get your "news" up before everyone else does.

Anyway. I had a great Thursday that really reminded me of the old Con days, because I sat in on what felt like an old-school Con panel re: an indie horror movie that I'm excited to see. AMERICAN MARY is about body modification, and I'm curious about the story and visuals--and Katherine Isabelle (from GINGER SNAPS--whoo!) stars in it. The movie looks to be gory as all get out, but the directors (twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska) seem to be coming at their horror with some cerebral power behind the blood.

Friday was my big Hall H day because I was bound and determined to see GAME OF THRONES this year. (Last year, I came about 30 frustrating feet from getting inside Ballroom 20. Ugh.) So I got up at about 4:45 am (I know! Yuck!), then met a friend in line (Thank you, Nancy!). We did the geek Hall-H waiting thing, then the staff let us into the hall for another wait until the PARANORMAN panel started.

We watched some PARANORMAN clips with our 3-D glasses. My nephew is dying to see this movie, and I would actually love to go with him. The directors said that this flick comes out of a love for John Carpenter crossed with John Hughes. Um...awesome? They said it was influenced by THE GOONIES and 80s films of that nature, too, and it showed. There's a lot of fun and energy to PARANORMAN. Plus, Anna Kendrick (UP IN THE AIR and general actress of awesomeness) is enough to get me to see a movie. She's the dry-witted girl in high school you really wanted to be friends with, but you were careful never to let her know it because that would make you totally uncool and, thus, unworthy of her attentions.

The BIG BANG THEORY panel was hilarious, as expected. Almost the entire cast was there, except for Johnny Galecki, whose plane was delayed, and Jim Parsons--although he did appear via satellite hook-up. (Hah--isn't that totally something Sheldon would do? That's what made it so funny.) The panel was a little weird, though, because for some reason, all these kids kept coming to the Q&A microphone and asking questions. One girl even challenged the cast to a Nerd Battle to the death. (Gulp.) Sadly, she was removed from the microphone. The cast was politely miffed.

THE WALKING DEAD panel was terrific, and I think that's because Chris Hardwick (host of THE TALKING DEAD) was the moderator. He kept everything rolling and was funny as hell. I wish you all could've seen him give Steven Yeun (Glen) a hard time--strangely, the whole "way too many kids asking questions" thing carried over from the previous panel into this one, but this time we had tween girls who were crushing on Steven. ("I guess we've discovered your demographic." -Funnybunny Chris Hardwick) They showed us a kick-ass season 3 clip package, and I'm telling you--this show hasn't even come close to exploding yet. And I'm not just talking about popularity. The action was intense at the prison, you all. HARDCORE ZOMBIE BEANS. Carol, a character who has gone through an admittedly tough time the past couple of seasons, doesn't do much in the series but drag herself around and make puppy eyes at Daryl, but it looks like she's gonna jack up her 'tude and pull out some weapons this time around. (If you haven't read the comics, don't read what's in the rest of this paragraph: POSSIBLE SPOILER!!! We know that the series has deviated from the comics quite a bit, but a pretty big change seems to have been made with the Woodbury story line. In the comics, Rick, Michonne, and Glen, I believe, went to Woodbury and met the Governor. <---shithead But it looks like Michonne and Andrea are the ones who'll have some Woodbury adventuring here. No matter, though, because Michonne looks *perfect.* She is still a zombie-killing goddess.)

I will tell you this, too--Andrew Lincoln (Sheriff Rick) is smoking hot in real life, especially because he has an English accent. Holy moly, that accent. Sarah Wayne Callies was *very* aware of the burning hatred her character Lori evokes, and I felt terrible for her, because she says she goes to places like the grocery store with her daughter and fans accuse her of being a homewrecker. *Get a grip, people!* Yikes. Oh, and Norman Reedus (Daryl) is gold, clearly loving the fans and his job.

Now...the GAME OF THRONES panel. Let me first say that I love that the cast flew a long way to be at the Con, and we adore them. George RR Martin moderated, and I'm thinking that he might've been a little tired from writing away on WINDS OF WINTER. (I hope!) David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the show runners, weren't on the panel this year because they're on the set in Europe, so we didn't get a lot of insight into the story decisions they made re: season 2. (SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED SEASON 2 yet: I was hoping someone would broach the subject of the Robb/Talisa story line. Truthfully, I'm really curious about why a very key plot element that affected the decisions Robb made about marrying Talisa as well as the one Cat made about releasing Jaime was left out. And I wished for some insight about why they decided to make Jeyne into Talisa.)

Martin's questions were pretty general, but I was *very* excited to be in the same room as Richard Madden (Robb Stark). Can you blame me? Also, they showed us a segment that revealed the casting of some season 3 characters. I am LOVING that Diana Rigg is the Queen of Thorns, which is a small role but a memorable one. The guy playing Beric Dondarrion looked like he might be hot. Also, the kid they cast as Jojen Reed is simply adorable, and I think Meera will be, too.

After the THRONES panel, we stayed for RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION, and Michelle Rodriguez won my admiration when she civilly--yet very firmly--shot down a jerk who used the Q&A panel to ask her to have sex with him. *You read that correctly.* He started off by asking an apparently legit question, then popped out with that gem. She told him a story that involved a stalker who came to masturbate in her backyard; her reaction was to call the police, then laugh at him while she held a sword in one hand and a gun that Samuel Jackson once gave her in the other. "You remind me of that guy," she told this particular freakshow. It was an amazing way to handle what could've been an embarrassing situation.

The last panel we saw was TOTAL RECALL. I'm one of those people who didn't see the purpose in remaking a movie that seemed perfectly fine in the first place, but I think that Colin Farrell definitely brings some soulfulness to a role that was originally quippy and light. Oh--and if you ever get the chance to see a Colin Farrell panel, go. He's witty and cool and lively. I want to be his buddy.

Today's a free day, but I'm thinking of going for the SONS OF ANARCHY panel tomorrow, because I love me some Jax Teller. Meanwhile, have a great Saturday, you all!

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

For a few months
now, I’ve been working with two other urban fantasy authors on a “top secret
self-published digital project.” We have
a name for it, and we have a logo. But
we have a few things to resolve before we officially announce this endeavor.

Even so, I’m free
to tell you this much: I have already written the first Vampire Babylon novella
to be digitally self-published with this “Top Secret Project”!

I can’t even tell
you how exciting this is. When Vampire
Babylon, a series that I wrote as “Chris Marie Green,” ended, I knew there were
still a lot of adventures that Dawn Madison, Kiko, and the gang could
have. I even wrote a short story for a
collection called THOSE WHO FIGHT MONSTERS.
But then I started getting very interested in digital publishing and,
naturally, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to go for it with my
beloved VB world.

I’ll be putting
out another newsletter in August, and it’ll have an official announcement about
this project in it, but before then, my friends and I (You’ll find out who they
are soon!) will be putting out more information on Twitterand Facebook. You might even be able to connect the dots
with our Tweets and posts.

Hang in there for
more!

These are very
exciting times, because besides this project, I’m working on others, both
digital and print-based. In fact, my
next “Crystal Green” Special Edition in my St. Valentine, Texas, miniseries,
DADDY IN THE MAKING, will be out in October.
I don’t have release dates yet for my next Blazes since Harlequin plans
on releasing the two books in a connected series back-to-back, but it looks
like we’ll have to wait for early 2014. Still,
I’ll have four more Special Editions out before then, as well as these new
novellas.

I’ll also be
getting started on the Jensen Murphy: Ghost for Hire series that Ace recently
purchased. My guess is that the first of
those won’t be out until 2014, either—but they’re coming! I swear!

I’ve got some
cool prizes for the updated contest:
two Lori Foster books. And they’re signed!!! You could win SIMON SAYS and TOO MUCH
TEMPTATION, plus a stone bracelet I bought at Bottom of the Cup during my last
trip to New Orleans. (For those of you
who aren’t familiar with Bottom of the Cup, it’s a wonderful tea room where you
can get psychic readings. Definitely
worth a visit when you’re in NOLA!)

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Travis from Twitter asked me about casting my books. It's such a fun question! Luckily, I had the opportunity to play with casting with these older posts, so if you're curious about who could've been in the Vampire Babylon series (the first trilogy) or Bloodlands, here you go!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Hi to the Valley Center Writers who have tuned in here to look at the exercise notes that I promised to post! (And if you're just browsing this randomly, welcome to you, too. )

This is an exercise we did during the second part of the world building fiction workshop on May 12, 2012. Good luck with your worlds and, once again, you all were fabulous!

A Day in the Life

After every stage, remember to ask yourself how you can make the details of what just happened a little different....

Okay--so you've just written down some notes about a world you're creating. Let's walk through this world by using a character that you've either created already or a random character. You can even use yourself, if it's more comfortable.

* Are you male or female?
* What is your name? (Is it a strange sci-fi or fantasy type name? "Normal" name?)
*What is your station in life? (Rich, poor, middle class, something else altogether?)
*What is your job?
*What are the physics of your world (Zero gravity, for instance? Normal?)

[Look at what you have so far. How can you make at least one detail of your world a little out of the ordinary?]

Time for your morning routine....
*What do you eat?
*When you look outside (if there is an outside), what is the weather like?
*What are you going to wear?

[Again, look at what you have so far. How can you make at least one detail of your world a little out of the ordinary?]

*How do you get to work (mode of transportation) if you do work?
*What do you see along the way? (Different creatures or types of people? Road signs or advertisements for politics, religious beliefs, signs of what's important to society? Are there any details you see that will foreshadow what will happen later in the story? Are there any signs of how society is controlled or not controlled?)
*What is the architecture like?
*How is everyone communicating?

[And...look at what you have so far. How can you make at least one detail of your world a little out of the ordinary?]

TWIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You run into an event on your way to work (or wherever). Is this event political? Holiday related? Something to do with the history of the town? Is it based on a grudge that two clans/businesses/groups have with one another?
What is happening in general?
*And what is happening to you, specifically?*
(This moment can end up being a springboard for your plot--an "into the special world" marker on the Hero's Journey. If you're writing a contemporary, this might be where the hero and heroine meet, since it's fertile ground for conflict. Or would this make a good action scene? If you're writing a historical, this moment could paint a vivid picture of the times if the author uses a real event and sweeps the character into it.)

Friday, May 04, 2012

At today's world building workshop, I gave a sample of questions I often ask about my characters before I begin my actual writing. I initially developed these so I could go into deep point of view with each character, but these can also help with world building. (I'll provide comments after some of them, just as I did during the workshop).

*What do you do for a living?
Why?

This can show the different occupations in your world and help you figure out what your world needs in order to function on a daily basis. Does your character have a low level job--are they in the "dregs of this society"? Or is it the opposite?

*What’s your family like and how does your upbringing affect
you now?

How a character's family functions in this world is important. Is it a society in which children are valuable? Or are kids stuck in a high-tech nursery to be raised in order to become a cog in the wheel of your society? This question will reflect cultural norms.

*What is your worst fear?
(This one figures into the plot because I try to make sure their worst
fears are realized.)

*What kind of clothing do you wear? Why?Does the character wear clothing that conforms to your world? Or are they a fish out of water, and does their clothing reflect that?

*What is your “foil”’s hair/eyes, etc. like? (Here, I work up descriptions from the hero
or heroine’s POV—How would the hero describe the heroine’s red hair, for
instance? What does this description say
about him or his experiences? Is the
color somehow reflective of the heroine’s personality as he perceives it or is
it reflective something the hero has experienced in his own life?)

As for world building, are there "different" things about your world that can be worked into a description? For instance, if the hero's eyes are gray, maybe they're the gray of a postapocalyptic sky, and since that's from the heroine's world experience, you're building some of your world right there.

How would you describe your own appearance? How do you feel about your body?

(I'll leave the rest to you guys!)

*What is your favorite saying/motto? (This is usually the character in a nutshell.
Maybe it’s a cliché, like “What comes around goes around.” Or maybe it’s something different, like
“Screw me once, yea for me. Screw me
over, you’re gonna pay.”)

*What kind of hobbies do you have? (Anything quirky? How do these round you out as a person? Any evidence of them in your apartment or
workplace?)

*What would people have written about you in your high school
yearbook? (What’s written beneath your
picture? Any awards or dreams that have
since died? How did other people view you?)

*What is your love history?

*What would you find in your purse or wallet?

*What tangible object would symbolize you? (This could tie in
with the theme of the story.)

*What kind of education do you have?

*Where do you live?
Why?

For those who attended the workshop on Saturday the 5th, thank you! I hope these questions help you. I hope they help all you other writers out there, too.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Congratulations to Audrey Larson, who won the most recent contest. She'll receive a Priority Mail box full of books. :)

I just want to mention that my email has been very wonky, so if you've tried to reach me (or if you've been expecting an email from me), I've either answered or the email has been lost. You can always get a hold of me on this blog in the latest comments section, though. So sorry about this--I'm checking into my options.

I've been informed that my crystal-green.com contest entry isn't working, and I've let me page designer know. I hope to have this fixed soon, so please bear with me, and thank you so much for your patience. I'm also waiting for the last contest winner to respond to my email, so hopefully I'll have her name for you soon!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Did I tell you all how much I love my Kindle? One of the reasons is because I get to read books that aren't necessarily available in print, such as Mary Leo's amazing TRUSTING EVIL (a book about Richard Speck's influence on a group of young girls in the neighborhood where the massacre occurred and how one of them grew up haunted by the killings).

Here's another fabulous tale available as an e-read only. It's a novella called THE VAMPIRE PENDANT and it's the first story in the BLOOD GENIES series from Sheri Whitefeather. I'm her critique partner, so I got a preview--and, let me tell you, it's hot.

Sexy.

Evocative.

Hotness.

As you can tell from the series title, it's about a hybrid vampire and genie, and the action takes place in old school Hollywood. It's a highly emotional story, too, which you don't find often in erotic fiction.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

From Publisher's Marketplace:Chris Marie Green (AKA Christine Cody)’s “Jensen Murphy: Ghost for Hire” series in a three-book deal with Penguin. The urban fantasy trilogy features a justice-seeking spirit who takes on assignments to haunt/punish humans for the crimes they have committed. Editor: Ginjer Buchanan, agent: Pamela Harty of The Knight Literary Agency.

Back in October, I blogged about how this idea came about...

Sometimes ideas for new books/series are slow in coming. They evolve, pieced together bit by bit--a magazine article here, an experience you've had in life there...

And one day, it coalesces, and you flesh it out until it's ready to hit your editor's desk.

Then there are some ideas that run you over like a freight train.

That's what happened to me last week, while I was at the World Fantasy Con in San Diego....

My fellow paranormal writer Linda Thomas-Sundstrom and I were having lunch with a wonderful fantasy author who shall remain anonymous when we got into a powerful conversation about the death penalty. When Linda and I were walking back to the workshop area, we exchanged thoughts, as you do, then veered into a related subject: true crime books, like the ones written by Ann Rule. I asked Linda if she had read any John Douglas books, in particular THE CASES THAT HAUNT US. I told her about the stories in it--Jon Benet Ramsey, Jack the Ripper, OJ Simpson.... Linda paused, then referred back to the title of the book as well as our main topic, saying something that jerked me toward this new idea (and, yes, I am remaining vague here on purpose. ).

I blurted out the concept of the book, because it was triggered that quickly, and Linda and I stared at each other for a second then started laughing maniacally. She said jokingly, "If you use that, you have to acknowledge me." I said I would dedicate the book to her, LOL.

What Linda said, after I repeated the name of the John Douglas book, THE CASES THAT HAUNT US, was "People like that *should* be haunted."

And that's when I immediately pictured a ghost who works with an organization/agency that hires out spirits to exact vengeance on people who might be guilty of committing a crime. Boom--just like that. While I was walking home that day, I kept stopping, whipping out my notebook and fleshing out this ghost character, Jensen Murphy. She's a ghost who died in the 80s, and I kept picturing her, not as a Valley Girl, but more as one of those cool heroines from a 70s or 80s horror movie, like Sue in CARRIE or Ginny in the second FRIDAY THE 13th flick. Also, I knew I wanted to set the action in Southern California, and I thought of Elfin Forest in North County--the perfect place for Jensen to die.

(If you don't believe me, do a search on Elfin Forest. Perfect!)

I'll be working on this project after summer, since I've got other books to finish before then. Until that time, though, there just might be another big announcement coming down the pike. In fact, I guarantee it!

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Just a reminder: I'll be at the Tucson Festival of Books (tucsonfestivalofbooks.org) this weekend with some friends, Judy Duarte, HelenKay Dimon, and Linda Thomas-Sundstrom! I was able to get on a couple great panels as well as have a signing with Mysterious Galaxy. Here's where I'll be:

Monday, March 05, 2012

Several of us authors have banded together to give away a Kindle and an Amazon gift card during the Publisher’s Weekly Beyond Her Book Anniversary party over at Barbara Vey’s wonderful blog. There’s *a lot* going on there—a virtual party, as a matter of fact, which includes drop-ins from Chris Marie Green/Christine Cody/Crystal Green (choose one or choose all my names, LOL) plus other authors who would love to chat with you!

All you have to do is imagine that you’ve hopped a slow-moving train to the eerie region of Transylvania, where you hear the howl of wolves as you climb the mountains to a castle that’s rumored to hold all manner of paranormal creatures...then click here!
(http://BeyondHerBook.com)

As I mentioned, I’m on a team of authors, headed up by Lisa Kessler, who wrote the fabulous NIGHT WALKER. Some of us are giving away a prize today, just for checking out our blogs. Here, at my blog, I’m giving away three prizes to three different people—and there are four ways you can win either a signed copy of BLOODLANDS, a signed copy of A DROP OF RED, Vampire Babylon, Book 4, or a signed copy of A PATH OF RAZORS, Vampire Babylon, Book 5!

• Leave a comment on this blog (and please leave your email so I can contact you if you win)

• Subscribe to one of my newsletters at crystal-green.com (mailing list form on the right-hand side), chrismariegreen.com (click on the “sign up for the Chris Marie Green/Christine Cody Newsletter Here” near the top)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Just a reminder: I'll be at Passion and Prose this weekend in Long Beach (www.passionandprose.org). They lowered the price to $65 for the day, which includes lunch and lots of opportunities to mingle with authors!

On the weekend of March 2-4, I'll be at ConDor (www.condorcon.org). Here's my schedule:

Friday, 2pm
American Remakes of Other Countries’s Movies and Television panel

Saturday, 10am
Vampires: A Dead Trend Or Very Much Undead and Kicking?

Sunday, 3pm
signing in the Dealer's Room

After that, on the weekend of March 10 & 11, I'll be at the Tucson Festival of Books (tucsonfestivalofbooks.org). My schedule is:

Monday, February 06, 2012

Check it out--my May Special Edition release! This is the first book in a new miniseries called "St. Valentine, Texas," and there's a town mystery that runs throughout the series. The hero and heroine of this book are small-town reporters who take up an investigation into the odd death of the man who founded St. Valentine in early 1930s...but they're also high school sweethearts who had a falling out....

Monday, January 30, 2012

Congrats to Colleen Conklin, who won lots of my backlist at www.crystal-green.com!

Even though I’m in between releases right now, that doesn’t mean I can’t give anything away this month, too. See, I went to the closing of a book store (sob), and I bought a bunch of books at a low price. I can’t possibly get to all of them, but I figured that there’s someone out there who would love a bunch of new books. It’ll be another surprise bundle—another priority-rate box full of great stories (including a few of mine)!